Dark Souls 2: New Engine Allows for Subtler Forms of Expression and Gimmicks

The unveiling of Dark Souls 2 at E3 was both exciting and a bit confusing. Exciting because the original Dark Souls was a masterpiece and confusing because it really looked identical to the first Dark Souls as well. Considering that every publisher was presenting something jaw-dropping in light for the next-gen consoles; Dark Souls 2 pretty 2 much looked the same.

So will Dark Souls 2 provide us with an entirely new experience or not? Yui Tanimura, co-director of the game says it will.

Speaking with Polygon, Tanimura expressed his “long-held desire to include subtler expressions in the game”, which the game’s new engine will help do so. The game’s new particle system will allow for a heightened sense of gameplay and enable players to “dive in and immerse themselves within the actual gameplay and feel as if they are actually part of the game itself.”

“The idea of gimmicks in the game is now doable with this new engine,” Tanimura continued. “Things like representing an enemy that is perhaps off-screen but with movement of shadows, or that kind of expression in the game. It’s something that [I] always wanted to do but wasn’t able to do with the previous engine.”

“There’s a lot of ideas like that. We don’t want to give everything away, but those kinds of things are small things that we wanted to express, and with this engine we think we can do that.”

Dark Souls 2 is confirmed for release next year. Platforms have not been mentioned and I hope they do a better PC port; provided they actually decide to do it.

Saqib is our leading news editor with his posts helping to make up the brunt of our daily news posts. He's a PC gamer at heart, and his favorite game is Diablo II.